Dear Seeking,
I am not giving suggestions because I see your child having any problems with doing any kind of math. My 9 yr old ds is like a human calculator, doing all this math in his head and reading adult math books about infinity, modern geometry, etc. I'm telling you this only because I can understand what it's like to have a gifted child.
Yet, with all the ways he is advanced for his age, there are still the basic needs of a 9 yr old there, and maybe even some developmental stages that he has gone through and will go through, like everyone else.
So, for instance, this past fall, we tried to do some algebra together. We kind of hit a wall in the understanding department, about why we were solving an equation. He computes answers in his head very quickly, and that works for him. So, I let it go. Why? Because it meant he could choose something else to explore and learn. He's happy and he is learning more than I could ever teach him.
Then, I was reading some of Bob Hazen's bio, on this forum, about algebra, and he said that you have to have your thinking developed enough to be able to handle algebra. That confirmed that my "intuition" was right, to not push and make him learn something he was having trouble doing.
I am giving suggestions because we found these books to be encouraging and we share and play with these things with the rest of the family. I found out that there are all kinds of Fibonacci numbers in nature. My 12 dd went out one day and found leaves and petals for each number in the series, and taped them in her notebook. It was not an assignment. She wanted to do it because she saw us reading about it and talking about it in the Penrose books.
It's amazing what we can learn from our children, when we take the time. I need to challenge myself to do some math games along with my children. I am going to look for the ones that Bob suggested.
Your friend in IL,
Kim B.

Dear Seeking,
I suggested reading about Gauss, however, I forgot to mention the book I really liked, that was a whole book of good biographies. Since your daughter focuses on people, she would probably like this book; it's called

Exploring The World Of Mathematics
By: John Hudson Tiner

Did you know it was his mother who helped Gauss with his math? Very inspiring.....

We are, hopefully, sharing more math reading suggestions, on the other thread here on the math forum.
Thanks.

Hi Ramona,
I like the hundred chart we got from Ruth Beechick. It was useful for adding and subtracting. It's in need of some repair, though.
Have you done any other math with it? No one is using ours right now. I want to get it out for our 7 yr dd, since she would probably want to look at it.

I also agree that timed drills for basic math facts are important. In order to be successful in higher math and science courses kids need to know their math facts cold. I teach h.s. chemistry and unfortunately for some kids a lot of the chemistry is math-based. Kids who are struggling to remember what 6x7 is or how to quickly multiply 2,000 by 24 end up missing the chemistry concept b/c they are too busy working on the basic math that should have already been mastered by this point.

I think younger kids should be pushed a little to be able to work out problems under a LITTLE bit of stress (time constraints). They should be able to recognize for themselves whether or not they know the facts cold or still have to think through each problem, create pictures in their head, or play with manipulatives to get the answer.

They should also see for themselves whether or not they are improving. I know my own children love to have races to see who can come up with the answers the fastest, or how many problems they can each solve in a 2 min period. They love seeing their scores improve over time. I'm confident that when my girls are working through chem, physics, statistics, etc. problems when they are a teenager, that they will be happy that they know their math facts cold and can spit out answers quickly so that they can focus more on the application of the math than struggling to work out the problem itself._________________Free Report! Start your own online tutoring business & earn $25 -$75/hour from home. Get your free report at http://www.TutorFi.com/freereport.asp